1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly to mounting assemblies for computer components
2. Description of Related Art
Personal computer systems commonly include a main enclosure housing a central processing unit and various other digital and analog electrical components including data storage devices. Data storage devices, such as, for example floppy disk drives, Winchester drives, tape drives and optical memory storage systems, typically conform to industry standards regarding height and width (i.e., "form factor"), and regarding the position of frame mounting holes.
As used herein, "form factor" refers to a width of an electrical component. When used in connection with a floppy disk drive, the form factor refers to industry standards regarding the width of the data storage unit according to the media size (i.e., the width of the floppy magnetic storage disk). For instance, when referring to a 51/4 inch form factor, which equals the width of the floppy disk, the disk drive has an overall width of about 150 millimeters (mm). When referring to a disk drive having a form factor of 31/2 inch, the overall width of the disk drive equals about 100 mm.
Over the last decade, the size of personal computer components have drastically decreased in size while increasing in performance For example, data storage devices introduced with personal computers in the early 1980's had a form factor of 51/4 inch and a height of 84 millimeters (mm) ("full height"). Currently, data storage devices commonly have a form factor of 31/2 inch and a height of 25.4 mm ("one-inch height"), and a few companies have introduced even smaller data storage devices (e.g , a 21/2 inch form factor).
These new data storage systems not only offer a smaller size, but also have larger memories and cost less than their predecessors. Because of the expanded memory capability and lower cost provided by the newer data storage devices, these devices typically replace antiquated data storage units. The smaller units, however, cannot be mounted directly into existing larger enclosure bays without supporting hardware.
A number of form factor conversion devices have been developed to retrofit a larger enclosure bay with a smaller, cheaper, increased memory capacity data storage device. Prior form factor conversion devices, however, use fasteners, such as screws, to secure the data storage unit to the frame of the form factor conversion device.
Fasteners pose many problems when assembling together the disk drive and the form factor conversion device. First, when producing the form factor conversion device, more effort is necessary to dimension, layout, and fabricate the extra mounting holes in the frame of the form factor conversion device. Second, shipping the additional parts adds expense and increases the possibility of omitting the small fasteners. Third, assembly is complicated due to the necessity of aligning and joining together the fasteners, the frame of the form factor conversion device and the data storage unit, thus increasing assembly time and labor costs. In addition, there is a greater likelihood of tolerance mismatch between the positions of the mounting holes in the disk drive and the mounting holes in the frame of the form factor conversion device, further frustrating the assembly process. The small fasteners also commonly get lost during the assembly process. These assembly difficulties increase the time associated with and the cost of assembling together the disk drive and the form factor conversion device.